No, Swiping A Tissue Over A Baby's Face Will Not Put Him To Sleep

No matter how much I want it to.

When I saw the video of a dad in Sydney gently brushing a tissue over his baby's face to get him to sleep, I had to try it on my son, Jeremy. The baby in said video goes from wide-awake to sound asleep in 42 seconds flat. I said to myself, even if it takes five times that amount of time, that'll still be WAY faster than the half hour or more I devote to nursing, sitting in complete silence and rocking every time Jeremy wakes up in an effort to send him back to Dreamland. (Yes, we tried sleep training. No, it didn't work.)

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Here's how the tissue experiment went with Jeremy.

I put him in his crib drowsy, but awake as every baby book recommends.

I grabbed the plushest tissue I could find.

I softly whisked the tissue from Jeremy's forehead down to his chin.

This was approximately the response I got.

Getty ImagesBeowulf Sheehan

Extreme confusion. His eyes seemed to say, "Mommy, are you kidding me right now?"

I returned for round two. Jeremy's expression turned to this.

Getty ImagesTara Moore

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

A little nervous that I was continuing to polish his face with a tissue.

I did it once more and got this.

Getty ImagesIndeed

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

His eyes were closed, but he didn't seem pleased and he definitely wasn't asleep.

And by try four, Jeremy had progressed to this.

Getty ImagesAlbert Molton

I think he was trying to say, "Pick me up so your hands are occupied and can no longer do this creepy tissue thing to my head." Or maybe it was simply "Stay away from me, crazy lady."

In either case, he was not asleep and he was not happy.

I tossed the tissue in the trash (I think Jeremy had licked it during try two) and retrieved my baby from the crib so we could do our usual seemingly endless routine to get him to snooze.

To be fair, Jeremy is probably a few months older than the baby who successfully falls asleep in the video, and Jeremy wasn't swaddled like that child is. But moms and nanas everywhere, the tissue trick probably will put only the most easygoing of babies to sleep and would work as well as doing anything else repetitive and mildly soothing.

A Part of Hearst Digital Media
Woman's Day participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.